Literature as an option for criminal offenders

“Changing lives through literature”. This short phrase in plain English is the title of a US penal policy program and also, surprisingly and much more ambitiously, an alternative sentence - to jail.

The program that has recently called the attention of the press as it spread from its origins in the State of Massachusetts to seven other states in the US and spawned a version in the UK, began humbly back in 1991.

Through Changing Lives, Judges can invite offenders to rise above plain English by sentencing offenders to take courses in literature as an alternative to imprisonment. A study conducted by a criminal justice organization found that over a year’s period it significantly reduced recidivism down from the national average of 45% to an encouraging 18%.

Photo caption: Prof. Waxler left, with a probation officer and two offenders

“As a literature professor I’ve always believed deeply in the power of literature, that if people paid more attention to reading, and deep reading, deep thinking and good literature, a lot of the large public policy problems would be, if not solved, at least partly solved through literature”, said Professor Robert Waxler from the University of Massachussetts, who conceived the program in the early 90’s. “But people generally today, and in 1991 when we started the program, have never really thought much about the literature. This has led me to always look for opportunities to show that”, he said.

Waxler’s original inspiration came out of conversations after tennis matches with his friend  Judge Robert Kane and who frequently expressed his concerns with ‘turnstile’ justice, or the high rates of recidivism associated to prison sentences.

Together they came up with a simple model in which offenders are offered the opportunity to take part in a literature course in a probation program, instead of going to jail. The course is given to a group of at least eight offenders at a local university or community college with the participation of a judge, a probation officer and a facilitator, usually faculty professors.

Waxler goes on to explain that faculty professors are a preferred choice as facilitators not necessarily for their expertise, but because their connections with the university helps secure an avenue on campus for the program.

Taking them out of the streets, literally and metaphorically

“One of the early studies was an independent longitudinal study, done by criminal justice researchers. It took 32 people from our program and 32 other people with similar backgrounds and followed them after they were out of jail for about a year,” said Waxler. He stressed that of the people who had not gone through the program had a 42% rate of recidivism, about average for the country. But offenders who went through theprogram showed a much lower rate at about 18%. Waxler also points out that the program makes very good financial sense. It costs very little if compared to imprisonment.

“At best, in Massachusetts for example, because we try to make it statewide need to hire an administrative assistant, it costs the state about US$ 500 per person coming through the program. In contrast, the average cost for keeping someone in jail for a year is close to 30 thousand dollars”, he noted.

Nevertheless, the program has already felt the impact of the recession’s pressure to cut costs. Jean Trounstine, co-coordinator of Changing Lives and co-founder of the women’s program in Massachusetts, notes that they have lost the support from the legislature. “We’ve had a pretty difficult time in the last two years, because the legislature is not funding us, at our height we had maybe 12 programs in Massachusetts, and we were able to pay people", she noted.

Changing lives pays facilitators but not judges nor probation officers, and currently, according to Trounstine, many facilitators are participating pro bono. She expects that six to eight programs will be running in the state of Massachussetts next year, adding that the program is also present in about seven other states, and that there is a version of it now in the United Kingdom.

Trounstine who wrote “Shakespeare behind bars” prior to joining the program, notes that the original program in Massachussetts that is still running today gives offenders the opportunity to take a literature reading and discussion course inside a college campus.

As the program spread across the state and the US, many versions of the core ideas have been tried. Changing lives through literature had been given inside jails, it has been offered to juvenile offenders, it is offered in drug abuse rehab centers and it is offered in alternative schools to high risk youth.

‘We were not looking for first time offenders’

In the women’s program, female offenders may be told by the judge they can enter the program in exchange for shortening their jail sentences, for waiving fees or are impelled to take it along with anger management therapy.

“Although it is voluntary, which means that the offender must decide whether he or she will join, it still is however, probation”, stresses Trounstine (photo). Once a commitment is made, offenders must go through with it to the end, or they may find themselves losing their privileges, back to the bench in front of a judge, or even back in jail.

Offenders taking the course are not picked for misdemeanors. To the contrary, Waxler stressed that, from the start, Changing lives looked for offenders who had committed serious crimes, “otherwise we would not test the efficiency of the program.”

Trounstine’s program does not include women accused of homicide or sex crimes, but it routinely includes people guilty of assault, battery, domestic violence, drug dealing and a host of other charges. “We specifically looked for people who were not first time offenders, but who had a history of repeated crime”, said Trounstine. 

So what makes it work? “Literature does seem to have that power”, said Waxler. And venue also plays a role: ideally, Waxer believes best to try to run it in a college campus or a library, but a place that is different from the mean streets, and by mean streets Waxler means crime.

“One conclusion that we have increasingly come to is that so much of literature’s effectiveness is that it takes the offender “literally and metaphorically” out of his neighborhood. “Reading good literature and reading good stories and discussing those stories can be very exciting and thrilling, and it can show people they can be self-reflective and think, which is as thrilling as being on the streets... that is the real challenge."

According to Waxler, many who come into the program, often without a high school education, are people who are searching for sensation and thrill by being on the streets - in the sense of criminal activity. "And some of them are very good at it", said Waxler, describing the case of a successful drug dealer.

“There was this offender, a very bright guy with an 8th grade education, a very good drug dealer, making thousands of dollars on the streets selling drugs. When he came to the class he started getting excited about the class and the discussions.

A few weeks into the course he looked at me around the table and said: “I gotta tell you, for me I´d never thought I would find anything as interesting and exciting for me as being on the streets and selling drugs, but I now find that coming here and doing this class and engaging in this discussion about literature is a lot more exciting than being on the streets. I love it. And other people joined in and said, 'I know what you mean, I never thought I could think like this!'”, he said.

Deep reading

The philosophy of reading and discussion removes it from the world of therapy. “There is a doubleness about reading a good story or a good book. You project yourself on the character and follow it, while  simultaneously,” said Waxler, “you see yourself as if looking at a mirror and re-experience your own story -start thinking about it”. The other equally important part is the discussion.

Waxler who has been a facilitator since the program first started in 1991 stresses the lesson in empathy:

“You're exchanging ideas about the reading, and although everyone read the same story, each one comes from their own angle and position. The result is if you see even further into yourself, and gain a connection with other people. You see you are not alone..that there is a complexity to life itself, and that is extraordinarily helpful, the conversation itself helps bring people together.”

Wexler sums up the core of Changing lives’ approach to literature with the expression deep reading:  “This is a term that many literary critics use, often equated with "slow reading" (meaning "thoughtful" and "careful") To me, it suggests that people are reading with care and mindfulness; they become ("deeply") engaged with the story, are imaginatively transported, and then they also are self-reflective about what they are reading, and focusing on. The CLTL process starts by "reading" the story,and people mapping their story on to the story they read. That might be the beginning of "deep reading."

Then they also reflect on the story (the one they have read and their own story). To "deepen" further the reading experience, the discussions allow for more "depth,"attentiveness, and self-reflection. It is a little like Ernest Hemingway'sidea that reading a good book is like approaching an iceberg. You might at first only see the top layer, but you should realize that about 7/8ths ofthe iceberg (and a good story) is beneath the surface”.

How books are picked

With the philosophy of engagement, Waxler described his selection of reading material as books that “will resonate with the issues that the criminal offenders are wrestling with. Issues such as male identity, the struggle of the individual to find his/her place in society, male violence, and so on.” He picks from the cannon. Trounstein uses books written by women, she notes she does not leave the choice of books to the offenders themselves, because “honestly a lot of what they have access to is very commercial, so I try and give them something that they are not likely to come across.”

Trounstine will use a book that is more demanding such as “The bluest eye” by Tony Morrison, simpler popular novelsas well as contemporary short stories that appeared in the New Yorker for example: “I look for women facing dilemmas, whether it is in their relationships, or with money, or violence, something they can relate to”.She said she is wary of stories with happy endings:

“The women taking part in the program have seen a lot of darkness in their lives, they understand loss. I would pick “To Kill a Mocking Bird” because it talks about inequality and injustice, it has a sad ending; but it also offers hope that the children in the book will grow up to change society.” Program facilitators also mentioned that the participant’s vocabulary range improved very quickly during the course, minimizing the relevance of initial evaluations of reading skills.

Trounstine is also pointed about the hardships faced by women who want to stick to the program. “We evaluate each situation case by case, but overall it is clear that women are a much more vulnerable group, they get much less support,” said Trounstine, who notes that unlike their male counterparts, boyfriends and partners are rarely supportive of women who would like to “better themselves” through such a course.

"Bob Waxler often tells me of girlfriends waiting outside while they male offenders take the course, but if anything with women it is the other way around, men are not comfortable with the fact they may be learning more than them.” Women often have children and lack child care, they have to work to support their families.

But when it is time to speak in the classroom female participatns are usually “closer to the bone” according to Trounstein, “they have had hard lives, and are generally very poor. But they don’t try to pose, they readily admit they hate their lives, or that they have not done the reading for the class, they are more open, and relate more directly to the readings”, said Jean.

Jean Troustine likes to repeat what retired Judge Joseph Devora, a longtime member of the program, tells her often “You would not believe how many people run into in the community, in stores, who tell me ‘I am still reading’”.

Read Further:

Changing Lives Through Literature